Dispute threatens broadcasts of Big Ten games

Thursday

Aug 30, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 30, 2007 at 10:01 PM

There will be no buzzer beater. Negotiations between the Big Ten Network, which starts broadcasting today (Thursday), and TV systems Comcast and Dish Network have entered overtime. And right now, it’s a stalemate as to how the network will be seen in central Illinois — if it will be seen at all.

Nick Rogers

There will be no buzzer beater. Negotiations between the Big Ten Network, which starts broadcasting today (Thursday), and TV systems Comcast and Dish Network have entered overtime. And right now, it’s a stalemate as to how the network will be seen in central Illinois — if it will be seen at all.

That is, unless you’re a DirecTV Total Choice subscriber. In that case, BTN can be found on Channel 220 when programming starts today (Thursday).

BTN centers on the 11-school Big Ten conference, which includes the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

It’s promising “original programs in academics, the arts and sciences,” but the real draw is live-game coverage of Big Ten athletics — of particular interest in Springfield for Fighting Illini football and men’s basketball.

This season, BTN is scheduled to exclusively air 35 football games, 105 men’s basketball contests and 55 women’s basketball games. Included are at least two Illinois football games (including a non-conference contest against Western Illinois University on Sept. 8) and as many as 19 Illinois men’s basketball games.

Previously, most Illinois football and men’s basketball regular-season games aired on WCIA Channel 3 from Champaign as part of an ESPN Plus package. WCIA general manager Russ Hamilton confirmed those games no longer will be shown on the station.

BTN doesn’t have exclusive rights to all Big Ten football and men’s basketball games this season. In many cases, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 still have first choice of which games to air nationally. That’s the case with Illinois’ football season opener against Missouri, which will be shown Saturday on ESPN2.

But whether anyone in the Springfield area without DirecTV will see this year’s BTN games is open to serious question.

“Negotiations have broken down, and we’re not having any discussions with Comcast right now,” Mike Vest, BTN’s media relations manager, said Wednesday.

A Dish Network spokesman couldn’t comment on negotiations, but Vest said BTN has had “productive conversations with all cable and satellite providers with the exception of Comcast.”

Philadelphia-based Comcast already is the nation’s largest cable provider, with about 5 million subscribers in the states with Big Ten schools: Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. However, the company is about to add a half-million subscribers through an April deal to acquire Insight’s cable TV markets in Illinois, which include Springfield, Champaign-Urbana, Peoria and Lincoln.

The deal won’t be finalized until later this year, but Comcast already is handling local negotiations for BTN — and that leaves Insight customers shut out when it comes to Big Ten games.

“We haven’t reached an agreement yet, but we are absolutely willing to continue the dialogue (with BTN),” said Rich Ruggiero, vice president of communications for Comcast in Illinois. “We just want to do the right thing.”

Comcast is willing to air BTN, but wants to place the channel in its sports tier — an additional-fee package where only those who want the channel would pay for it.

BTN, however, wants in at the standard level of service that most cable subscribers receive. That would give the network a larger audience, more revenue and a spot alongside ESPN, ESPN2 and Comcast’s own Comcast Sports Net-Chicago, which includes Chicago sports coverage.

“The problem with the sports tier for us is that there is no locally relevant sports programming on a sports tier,” Vest said. “Illinois basketball and football games have a long history on (standard) cable … and we feel like this programming is relevant to people in Illinois.”

BTN also had asked $1.10 per customer from Comcast, a fee that, in theory, could be passed on to viewers. Vest said that figure was reduced in a later offer to Comcast that was rejected. Ruggiero said those numbers should be the subject of private negotiations, not public discussions.

“If (Comcast and BTN) can agree that the network belongs on expanded basic cable, we can negotiate price,” Vest said. “We feel like if the Tour de France is on your living room in (standard) cable, then the Illini should be.”

Nick Rogers can be reached at 747-9587 or nick.rogers@sj-r.com.

Layer

Only two University of Illinois football games are currently scheduled to be televised outside the new Big Ten Network this season:

-- U of I vs. Missouri, played in St. Louis, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, to be shown on ESPN2

-- U of I at Syracuse, 11 a.m. Sept. 15, to be shown on ESPNU (available through Insight cable’s extra-cost sports package or Dish Network’s America’s Top 250 package and higher)

The Big Ten Network is currently available in central Illinois only through DirecTV.